SCE&G meets solar power milestone

SCE&G customers are producing 43 megawatts (MW) of electricity from their own solar generating systems – that’s more than one percent of the five-year retail peak demand on SCE&G’s system, exceeding the goal set forth in South Carolina’s landmark solar legislation (Act 236) in 2014.

“We’re excited to have reached this milestone, which puts us well on our way to meeting the commitment we made under Act 236 to help our customers have greater access to solar energy while mitigating the impact to our non-solar customers,” said John Raftery, general manager of renewable products and services and energy demand management for SCE&G. “There are now thousands of SCE&G customers producing solar energy, and we’re continuing to add more customers to the system.

More than 37 MW of the customer-scale solar generation on SCE&G’s system comes from net energy metering, which allows customers to offset part or all of their electric usage. Act 236 also required SCE&G to make net energy metering available to customers on a first-come, first-served basis until the capacity equals two percent of the utility’s five-year retail peak demand (84.5 MW). As of June 30, SCE&G had interconnected more than 4,800 customer solar generating systems under net energy metering, including homes and businesses. Net energy metering customers participate under a tariff that is effective until 2025.

In addition to customer-scale solar initiatives, SCE&G continues to work toward its utility-scale goal of 42 MW. SCE&G energized the first utility scale solar facility under Act 236 in December 2015, and has announced plans to add 48 MW of utility-scale solar facilities by 2020.